


After Aftermath

by CuriosityAesthetic



Category: Redacted ASMR, Vampires - Fandom, asmr - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Aftermath, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gender Neutral POV, Kissing, Nightmares, Other, Vampires, but cooler heads prevail, contemplation of unhealthy coping mechanisms, first person POV, gender neutral listener
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:48:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26623921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriosityAesthetic/pseuds/CuriosityAesthetic
Summary: Inspired by Redacted ASMR's vampire series and set after "Aftermath".Listener is safe, and Adam is gone. But things are not that simple. Trauma leaves scars, even if they aren't visible. And a person can only keep themselves together for so long when their whole world has been turned on its head.
Relationships: Vincent/Listener
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	After Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> The muse just came and clobbered me over the head with this one after I listened to Aftermath. Because I have listened to this series WAY more times than I should actually admit to... 
> 
> I wanted to get into Listener/Lovely's head a bit, in response to what happened, and explore how they might be coping.

I jerked awake, my body lurching half-upright in bed before I even managed to open my eyes, a scream choked in my throat. One hand reaching.

With the dregs of the nightmare still clinging to my consciousness, it took a moment to recognize where I was. To remember that I was safe. That he was gone.

I could feel a strange, fizzy crackling around my hand, like tiny static shocks travelling over my skin. I glanced down, and even in the dim light that filtered in from the hall, I could see the faint pinpricks of light dancing between my fingers.

Vincent said he thought that my powers were electricity-based. Electro-energetic, he called it. Real, actual magic. It looked like he was right. 

The charge of magic faded, the prickling sensation receding as I watched, as wakefulness and logic won over the panic. 

I sighed, falling back against the soft pillows. And as I did, I heard an odd wooshing sound, and a shadow crossed in front of the door.

Vincent stood in the door frame, backlit by the light in the hall, a tall glass of what appeared to be water in his hand. 

He must have left the room while I slept. I hadn’t even noticed.

He crossed the room hesitantly. “Are you alright, lovely? I heard --- “

“Yeah, I -- “ But I couldn’t get the words out. Then I sighed again, scrubbing my hands over my face. “No. No, I’m not okay… “ Hearing it aloud was almost a relief, after having been unable to say the words at all. It had only been for a few hours, but the experience had left its scars as surely as Adam’s fangs had. “Bad dreams.” 

There was a soft clunk as Vincent set the glass down on the bedside table. “Do you wanna… talk about it? Or -- or not. You don’t have to. Just… Tell me what you need.”

Normally I would have said ‘nothing’. Nightmares were nothing. Or they were, until now. “Could you just… lie next to me for a while? Is that… is that okay?” I needed to feel someone close to me. I needed that anchor. Something solid and real. Something to make me feel alive and safe, instead of hollow and helpless and afraid. 

He hesitated, then gave a small nod. “I — okay. Yeah. It’s okay.”

I shifted over to let him crawl under the sheets next to me. 

For a moment we faced each other in silence, and it seemed like he was utterly unsure what to do with his hands. It was awkward, in a way we had never been before. He was being so careful with this fragile thing between us. And while I appreciated it, there was a part of me that was desperate for something normal. 

“You can… put your arms around me. If you want.”

His moonlight-silver eyes had always been beautiful. Now, looking at me, they were dark with concern. “Are you sure?”

I shuffled closer, until I could rest my head against his chest. “Please.” The request was soft, but I knew he would hear it. And when he moved, when I felt his arms around me, I was able to release the breath that I hadn’t known I was holding. 

And then the shaking started. 

I hadn’t cried when Adam had me. I hadn’t wanted to give him the satisfaction. He wanted me broken, so it was the last thing I would let him see. And when I first woke up after being rescued, I was exhausted. Physically and emotionally. And everything seemed a little far away and not quite real. Now that I was truly safe the dam that held those feelings, those memories at bay shattered, and I was lost in the flood.

I clung to Vincent, my entire body shaking as I sobbed against his chest, releasing the fear, the helplessness, and the hopelessness that I had been unable to express when I had been imprisoned. 

I don’t know how long I cried. It felt like a year. When I had no more tears to cry, I still couldn’t bring myself to release the grip I had on his shirt. I felt muzzy and headachey and just… tired. 

Vincent released me momentarily to reach over and retrieve the glass of water he’d set on the nightstand. 

I took it gratefully, draining half in a few quick gulps. I didn’t need a dehydration headache on top of everything else. Then I handed it back with a soft ‘thanks’.

He nodded, setting the glass back on the small table.

Twice I tried to speak, but the words caught in a painful ball in my throat.

Vincent brushed my hair gently out of my face. “It’s alright, little one. Take your time. Whatever you need.”

Whatever I needed. 

I needed a time machine, a way to go back and warn us both. A way to purge my mind so I wouldn’t be haunted by Adam’s touch, or the feel of his breath on my skin. So I would no longer hear the echo of that taunting sing-song voice in the silence. 

I took a steadying breath, then another. I could do this. 

“It was… I was back. In his… lair… or whatever.” The word sounded overly dramatic even in my own ears, but if there was any other word for it, I couldn’t think of it right now. “Adam’s. But this time… he had you too.”

Still curled against his chest, I felt more than saw Vincent’s surprise. “Me? But why -- “

“He wanted you too.” I remembered that much clearly. “Almost as much, I think, as he wanted me.” And certainly for longer. I’d thought, that first night, that Adam was afraid of him. But I was wrong. It wasn’t fear. 

There was silence as Vincent connected the dots. Adam had fed on another vampire before, had drained and destroyed his maker before being discovered by Vincent’s clan near WonderWorld. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to believe that he would eventually have attempted something like that again. 

“I couldn’t move,” I continued. “Could barely speak. I tried to scream. I tried to beg him to stop but… I couldn’t. Nothing came out right. ” I looked up, forced myself to meet Vincent’s eyes as I told him. All I wanted to do was forget it ever happened. But I couldn’t do that. Adam had hurt me, had taken my ability to speak. Now I had to take it back. “ ‘No’ became ‘yes’. ‘Stop’ became ‘more’. And when I called your name… it came out as his. Because that’s what he did to me.” 

I could see the dawning horror on Vincent’s face as he realized exactly what Adam had taken from me. No way to fight back, no way to protest. It was a sick power trip designed to make me feel weak and helpless and alone.

“Oh, baby… “ His arms tightened around me, and I could feel the brief press of his lips against my forehead. “I’m so sorry.”

“There are words you can say that mean the same things,” I told him softly. “But it’s not the same. To have words, any words taken away…” Never again, I promised myself. I would find a way to resist. I would never have those words taken from me again. 

Warm hands smoothed down my back, soft and soothing. “He’s gone,” Vincent promised me softly, his voice muffled as he pressed his lips against my hair. “There’s nothing left of him but ash in the wind. He can never touch you again.”

There was comfort in that. Adam had been a monster in every sense of the word, but he was as mortal, in a way, as anyone. It should have been disturbing, seeing Vincent rip his head clean off. Seeing his body crumble to ash on the dirty ground. But there was only a hollow kind of satisfaction. 

He was gone. And he wasn’t coming back. 

“You fought back,” Vincent continued, and in his voice there was nothing of the disbelief I felt when I thought of what had happened. There was pride. “You weren’t helpless. And you weren’t weak. You are incredible, Lovely.”

Incredible. That was one way to put it. This entire thing was incredible. Vampires and magic and secret worlds. And now I was a part of it.

“You know… I probably would have believed you sooner if you’d led with that,” I said after a moment. “With magic being real.”

That surprised a chuckle out of him. “Forgive me for not wanting to out the entire magical world in one shot. Also, how is magic easier to believe than vampires?”

“Say that again and actually listen to the words you are saying. There’s enough strange crap in the world that would totally support the existence of magic, even if it was just limited to extrasensory phenomena.”

“Extrasensory phenomena,” he repeated, and I could feel the teasing smile in his voice.

“Shut up,” I laughed. “It’s a thing.”

“Oh I know it’s a thing. I just hadn’t realized that you were such a nerd.”

“Wha — excuse you! I am not a nerd!” I pulled back, just enough to give his arm a light swat in rebuke. Of course, he barely felt it. But my point was still made.

“Baby, you just used ‘extrasensory phenomena’ in a conversation,” he pointed out, unable to keep from laughing.

“Bite me, fang boy!” 

The retort was automatic, but hearing it seemed to shatter that brief moment of normalcy that we had created. 

Vincent went silent. His silver gaze fell to my neck. He raised one hand, hesitating with his fingers scarce inches from my skin. I wondered what he could see. If any mark remained. “How… how are you feeling? Sam… he was able to heal the surface damage, but… “

“I… okay… I guess,” I answered. “A bit tired still. It doesn’t… it doesn’t hurt anymore.” And that in itself was more disconcerting than anything. It was a strange sensation to expect pain, to know that you should feel something, and to feel nothing at all. I ran my own fingers over the spot where the bite marks should be, dreading what I would find. But the skin there was smooth and whole. If any scars remained, I couldn’t feel them. Not on the outside, anyway. I wouldn’t ask if there were. That was a moment I needed to have on my own.

I didn’t want to think about that right now. 

Feeling bold, needing to think of anything else I pressed my lips against Vincent’s neck, the ghost of a kiss. He murmured my name and somehow it managed to be both a plea and a warning.

A warning I ignored entirely as I shifted to press my mouth against his. 

The sound he made in response was low and almost desperate. I knew the feeling. I was feeling pretty desperate myself. And dragged my teeth over his lower lip just to give myself the pleasure of hearing that sound again. 

“We… we shouldn’t…” The words were breathless, murmured against my lips. Like he was trying to convince himself as much as me. He wasn’t wrong. 

But I didn’t want to stop. I trailed one hand down his chest, finding the hem of his shirt, and slipped inside, dancing my fingers over the soft skin just above the waistband of his jeans.

“B-baby — “

I sighed, allowing myself one more kiss before parting my lips from his and bowing my head against his chest. “I know.”

It would be all too easy to ask. Vincent said he would distract me if I needed it, and wrapping myself around him would be a hell of a distraction. I wanted to feel his hands on me. His mouth on mine. To lose myself in the heat of him until the echo of Adam’s touch was burned from my skin.

But that wouldn’t be good for either of us. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have -- “

“Don’t.” Vincent cut me off, shaking his head as he ran one hand gently over my hair. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I wanted it too. You don’t know how much. But I think … maybe we should wait. Just a little while.”

“Okay,” I agreed softly.

He was right. When we came together, it shouldn’t be like this, with the shadow of the last two nights hovering over us. 

“I think… maybe I should go. Let you… let you have some space.” He started to pull away, but stopped when I caught hold of the hem of his shirt.

“Don’t. Please. Please don’t go.”

“Lovely -- “

But I wouldn’t let go. “Could you just…stay with me a while?” I asked softly. “Please? I just… feel safer with you here.” 

Vincent’s gaze softened and he shifted back into place next to me. “Okay. I’ll stay. As long as you need.”

“Thank you.”

He opened his arms in invitation. I snuggled back against him, smiling as I felt the press of his lips against my hair. 

And safe in his arms, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> Well that was fun to write! I don't usually write in first person, so this was a bit of an experiment for me. I hope you all enjoyed it!
> 
> There may be more one-shots later. I'm contemplating one involving Davey and cookies, but we will see what happens.


End file.
